Project Irresistible was presented at 11th Conference of the European Science Education Research Association (ESERA), in Helsinki, Finland, between August 29th - September 4th, 2015. Two symposia, poster and paper, were conducted on two different days. Each symposium started with a brief introduction of the Project Irresistible.

The first blog-post about teachers’ attitudes related to RRI teaching dealt with results in IRRESISTIBLE’s first round. Even though the model could identify four different profile types, most teachers (58%) fell in the category of a ‘co-operator’. This means that teachers are willing to work and collaborate about RRI teaching but are not overly excited about it. However, this result is not entirely satisfactory because there was a possibility that the questionnaire did not differentiate teachers in a realistic way. This suspicion rose partly from the observation that many of the questionnaire items had a ceiling effect and some items had high ‘I cannot say’-percentages. There were also many other ideas on how to improve the questionnaire.

The post-modern society claims uncompromisingly the necessity to complement formal education with the informal and non-formal one, by initiating and conducting trans- and inter-disciplinary education and extra-curricular activities, in various forms. In this context, non-formal education is reflected as an essential component of lifelong learning that capitalizes educational partnerships with the view to develop students’ competences and skills, more oriented on understanding the real world and involving practical settings.

Research shows that a visitors’ experience in a museum is greatly influenced and shaped by the social interaction and dialogue developed between visitors (vom Lehn et al, 2001; Crowley, 2000; Leinhardt et al, 2002). In addition, it has been shown that learning and cognitive development are supported when the participants engage in lasting activities with artefacts, and when they are engaged in social interactions and discussions with other participants (Heath, vom Lehn & Osborne, 2005).

IRRESISTIBLE is a project on teacher training, combining formal and informal learning focused on Responsible Research and Innovation.

It is a coordination and support action under FP7-SCIENCE-IN-SOCIETY-2013-1, ACTIVITY 5.2.2 Young people and science: Topic SiS.2013.2.2.1-1 Raising youth awareness to Responsible Research and Innovation through Inquiry Based Science Education.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 612367.